Self-inflicted injury (SII) in adolescents is a significant risk factor for later suicide and psychopathology in adulthood, and may be a developmental precursor of borderline personality disorder (BPD). Consistent with Linehan's biosocial theory of BPD, recent research among self-injuring adolescents suggests that they are emotionally dysregulated and that Sll functions to regulate their intensely negative affect. Neuroanatomical models of emotion regulation circuitry, derived from extensive neuroimaging research, implicate ventral portions of the prefrontal cortex (PFC), the amygdala, the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and their interconnections. Though functional neuroimaging research on emotion regulation has burgeoned in recent years, very little imaging research has been conducted in samples selected specifically for Sll, and no functional imaging studies have been conducted with at risk adolescents. Nevertheless, studies conducted with adults with BPD suggest that some of the same brain regions implicated in emotion regulation are altered. In the proposed research, functional magnetic resonance imaging will be used to examine neural correlates of emotional processing in adolescent girls who engage in Sll, relative to depressed and normally developing adolescent girls. The paradigm, which includes passive viewing of negative emotion faces, is well established and has been used successfully and commonly with adults with BPD and MDD. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This research may lead to improved understanding the neural bases and etiology of Sll in adolescents and may ultimately lead to improvements in diagnostic specificity, intervention targets, and prediction of treatment response. This research is consistent with the strategy for suicide prevention presented by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) in 2001.